Marshall County Highway Superintendent Jason Peters wants citizens to know what his department is working on around the county and the process for chip sealing a roadway. This week he released detailed information.
Area leaders are work in their areas this week to catch up on some repairs. Peter said, “With the road program work over the last 6 weeks, they have not had a lot of time to work in there townships. The rest of this week they plan to try and get some needed repairs completed and then look to try and finish out the season strong with paving projects.”
Culvert crew will continue to work on tiles, culverts and drainage issues throughout the county. Peters explained, with the road program this crew has been helping out to haul stone and help fill in where needed. Mechanics and the Shop Forman have also helped out with the hauling and the running of equipment during the road program.
Peters said, “With the purchase of the new distributor and chipper spreader it’s all hands on deck. This investment has increased productivity and quality of the chip and sealed roads. With the new investment the consistency that it takes to produce a quality product has made a significant improvement for the finished product.”
Through out the county the chip and sealed roads that have been completed this year have shown the improvement. Peters said, “As a Department we have all bought into working hard and watching for different signs that need to be noticed quickly. To make changes to the increase or decrease in emulsion or likewise increase or decrease in stone. The quicker these adjustment are made the less chance of bleeding emulsion or over application of stone. These changes can be made on the move with all units. All units have 2 way communication to be able to relay to one another as to what is happening once the sealing process starts. As the trucks back up to the chipper, each truck stagers to back up over the fresh stone to help compact the stone. If a truck notices stone picking up on tires they relay the message to the chipper operator which will start an increase the stone spread in small quantities.”
The Highway Superintendent continued with his explanation of the process, “As the process continues and all truck role over the stone and the rollers which makes 3 passes over the stone also are watching for the same thing, if the rollers notice tracking as well they will relay the message to the chipper operator and will increase the stone a little more to help keep the emulsion from bleeding. If the operator gets to high on stone application he radios to distributor operator to decrease the emulsion rate. Once trucks dump and pull away they are driving over the fresh compacted sealed road. All trucks on the sealed road stay under 30 MPH on the sealed road this helps keep the stone from turning or rolling up and leaving black marks on the road. (Emulsion showing through.)
Communication and trusting one another’s decision is a critical factor to success.
And as it has shown on the roads, the department does a great job of it and working at it.”
